Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid. Photo: Adi Cohen Zedek via Wikimedia Commons.

i24 News – The architect of the coalition that unseated Benjamin Netanyahu after 12 years as prime minister, Yair Lapid, on Monday promised to repair Israel’s relationships with the Democratic party and Diaspora Jewry.

Speaking at a handover ceremony at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the foreign minister and alternate prime minister blamed the outgoing government for damaging Israel’s ties with the party in Washington that currently controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.

“The management of the relationship with the Democratic party in the United States was careless and dangerous,” Lapid said. “The outgoing government took a terrible gamble, reckless and dangerous, to focus exclusively on the Republican party and abandon Israel’s bipartisan standing.”

With regard to Diaspora Jewry, Lapid said that work must begin to restore relationships with all streams of Judaism, mentioning the Reform and Conservative movements as well as the Orthodox movement, calling them “family.”

He also said that in his capacity as foreign minister he would work to strengthen relationships with countries in the region, including new Gulf allies the UAE and Bahrain.

“We need to continue the development that started with the Abraham Accords. To work to strengthen the peace with the Gulf States, with Egypt and with Jordan,” Lapid said. “We will work to sign agreements with more countries in the region and beyond. It’s a process, it won’t happen in a day, but the Foreign Ministry will coordinate those efforts.”